E.E cracked his knuckles while the 16th commander stood with a look of resolve. "This is our only chance," she said quietly. "If we fail… the universe will be at risk." Falco smirked slightly. "Then let's not fail." And then, the ship descended toward the hidden world. The 16th commander was well aware that together, Xyrath and Seraphine were unstoppable. No army could siege a planet defended by them. No assassins could approach without being dissolved by their abilities. They were Perfect partners... Perfect opposites. And that was why she needed them to be separated because there were lesser chances of things going wrong with them apart. E.E palms crackled faintly with dark vortex energy. "I'll separate them before they even know we're here." Aildris tightened a strap on his gauntlet. "And I'll hit her with everything before she stabilizes." The other part of the plan belonged to Serayna alone. While the three of them fought, she would infiltrate the monolith-like structure where the ritual was being conducted. She knew its layout. She knew the sigils. She knew the objects needed. Destroying even one of them would collapse the entire process. A single point of failure. She repeated it all to them many times, until she felt her voice tremble and forced herself to calm down. Her father. Her step-mother. The two people who raised her. The two people she was sentencing to death. And yet— She saw the future. And she had seen the countless worlds burned if the ritual succeeded. She could not allow that future. Not even for them. "I'm ready," she told them. They activated camouflage mode, erasing their ship signatures and muffling its presence across all detectable spectra. They became invisible as they entered Oblivion-39-A upper atmosphere... Or so it should have been. The moment the ship dipped lower, Serayna's eyes widened. "STOP—!" Her warning came too late. A shockwave of detection energy washed across the ship like a roaring tide. It wasn't technological. It wasn't magical. It was a living sense. "They sensed us?!" Falco shouted. Before Aildris could respond, the first strike came. A barrage of gravitational spheres condensed with the power of miniature collapsing points of mass, shot upward like black stars, slamming into the ship's underside. Aildris jerked the controls, dodging most of them. But for each sphere dodged, two more appeared. "They're firing blind," E.E said. "They can't see us but they know something's here!" A gravitational spear tore past the cockpit window, distorting vision for a moment. Aildris cursed. "They're locking onto the displacement our cloaking field causes!" 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞 Another barrage struck the right flank. The ship lurched violently. Then Xyrath made another move. A strange echo swept across the planet's surface, triggering a spatial trap. Serayna felt her heart stop. She recognized that exact pattern. She had seen this moment in a vision. "ABANDON SHIP!" she screamed. E.E didn't hesitate. He ripped open a vortex behind them causing the air to swirl violently. "GO! NOW!" Without needing further instruction, Falco shoved Serayna through the vortex. Aildris followed, vaulting backward. E.E jumped in last. The ship twisted, bent, then folded in on itself as Xyrath's trap consumed it. It crashed into the surface, detonating in a silent implosion. But they were already gone— They emerged from the vortex into a harsh landscape of smooth stone and blistering skies. The planet was beautiful but unnatural, like a hand-crafted reality made only to be functional. And utterly empty. No animals. No plants. No structures except one. The monolith. A towering, natural-looking formation, though they knew it was anything but natural. Dark inscriptions spiraled up its surface, glowing with ritualistic power. E.E didn't waste a second. "Stick to the plan." He stretched his arms outward; a vortex expanded from him like a ripple. A sudden thunderous BOOM shook the ground. Xyrath appeared first, materializing in front of Falco like a walking singularity, his presence alone making the air heavy. Calistra appeared a second later, standing within a twisting cyclone of warped space with her exposed skin glowing red and her hair made of liquid fire. Their gazes locked onto Serayna instantly. "You," Seraphine snarled. "So that was the disturbance—" "You betrayed us," Xyrath voice rumbled like shifting mountains. Serayna didn't reply. She couldn't even look them in the eye, fearing she would change her mind E.E slammed his palms together. "Not today." A vortex erupted beneath Seraphine feet. She gasped in shock as the spatial fabric beneath her destabilized, sending her spiraling downward into another region of the world. Aildris and E.E dove in after her. Mass distorted around Xyrath as he prepared to interfere but Falco was already there, intercepting him with a shockwave of dark energy. The ground cracked beneath them. "Go!" Falco yelled without looking back. "We got this!" Serayna didn't hesitate anymore. She proceeded to sprint toward the monolith. ... ... The entrance to the monolith was small, but the inside expanded like a cathedral of shifting rocks. Floating glyphs rotated around a central pillar, and beneath them lay the ritual objects: A fractured starlight shard. A gravity-core. A spatial mirror. A pulsating heartstone taken from an extinct cosmic beast and a bunch of fifteen other very rare minerals that the two supreme leaders had used the resources of the Gustavo Alliance to gather. Destroying even one would collapse the ritual. Serayna stepped forward— "TRAITOR!" A voice suddenly thundered through the chamber. It was her father's. Xyrath was not physically present, yet his projection materialized within the ritual circle, formed from mass particles and gravitational echoes. His eyes blazed. "You betray your lineage. Your blood. Your destiny." Serayna's breaths trembled but her hands did not. "I'm preventing a future you will regret." "You see fragments. You always have." His projection stepped forward. "But I see the whole." "You see control," she snapped. "Not the consequences." "You are still a child." "I am your daughter," she said softly. "But I'm also a soldier. And… I'm sorry." Xyrath's projection raised a hand causing gravitational force to swirl like a black storm. "Then you leave me no choice." Serayna activated her energy blade which split into sixteen different glowing fragments floating around her and then charged. — MEANWHILE — OUTSIDE The real Xyrath towered over Falco with mass rippling around his body like waves. Each time he punched, the weight of his attack increased by thousands of tons. Falco matched him blow for blow, shifting his density to absorb impacts. The ground turned to dust beneath their feet. "You're strong," Xyrath admitted. "But you are not enough." Falco grinned through bloodied teeth. "You'd be surprised." Their clash sent shockwaves across the planet. --- Meanwhile on a other part of the planet, Seraphine Vortera recovered from the vortex displacement almost instantly. "You dare separate me from my beloved?" she hissed. Aildris unleashed a storm of colorful strikes, bending energy around his limbs. E.E combined vortex traps with time-bending distortions. For a moment, Seraphine was forced on the defensive. "You two worms." Her figure blazed with supernova brightness as she tore space apart with her bare hands, sending ribbons of distorted reality snapping at them. Aildris blocked while E.E countered as a powerful battle broke out. --- Serayna fought her father's projection which sent gravitational wave chipping at her limbs. She ducked, rolled, slashed, using her precognition to guide, seeing glimpses of danger. Despite bending the fragments of blades around her and sweeping them at the projection, it was mostly futile. Vaelkor's projection grabbed her mid-air, tightening a crushing pressure around her bones. "Stop this madness," he said. "The ritual will wreak havoc on billions!" "It will save trillions!" "You always justify terror as necessity!" "And you justify weakness as morality!" "I justify choice!" she screamed before flicking her fingers, causing a massive energy blade to speed in from the side which stabbed into the projection's face. The projection shattered. She collapsed to her knees, panting, trembling and crying. But she forced herself up. She staggered to the starlight shard. Raised her blade. And— She brought it down. A blinding flash consumed the chamber. The ritual let out a piercing shriek as it fractured. Outside, both Vaelkor and Calistra felt it. Both leaders roared— But it was too late. The ritual was ruined. With the starlight shard was destroyed, the ritual was stopped and the universe was now safe. The glyphs were flickering and dying. And the monolith's runes slowly lost their glow like candles suffocating in the wind. Serayna collapsed to one knee with her chest heaving. Sweat trickled down her jawline as her trembling hands still held the energy blade she used to break the ritual artifact. Her father's projection was gone, dissolved with her final strike and now it was finally over. Outside, Falco stood with his foot pressed into the chest of Xyrath, the First Supreme Leader. Dust and shattered stone surrounded them. Falco's body was wrapped in monstrous shadows, signs of the Nocturnis power. Dark veins spread across his tattoo covered skin as his eyes glowed with pitch-black flames.